Richard Dieter, of the Death Penalty Information Center, faces the prospect that the decline of the punishment may take his organization close to obsolescence.

Richard Dieter, of the Death Penalty Information Center, faces the...

Back when he first started putting out yearly reports about capital punishment, Richard Dieter employed language that had all the subtlety of a fire alarm. Executions and death sentences were running amok, he suggested, and the future looked grim for those troubled by the practice.

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